I gave birth to my daughter on my brother’s 25th birthday.
Danny, “A niece! Just what I wanted for my birthday!”
Through the years they enjoyed their joint birthday.
Happy heavenly birthday Danny.
I have wondered if you would like this:
Orange Crush was your favorite soda.
You were 5.
I was 7.
Mother would give us our allowance in the grocery store.
You got a dime. I got a quarter. We would get sodas.
You couldn’t figure out why I got change and you didn’t.
On January 31, 2025, you had a fatal freak accident.
You were riding your bicycle.
No one knows why you came to an abrupt stop.
Your body flipped over the handle bars.
All of your weight came crashing down on your head.
Your helmet couldn’t protect you.
If your shoes had not been clipped to the pedals –
You never regained consciousness.
So, this morning your niece and I had a bittersweet birthday conversation.
She has the day off from work and was deciding if she’d take the kayak out
or
take their dog out to the dog park.
Their little boy would go home from school with his brother
And the two families would go out to dinner together for a birthday celebration.
What’s Heaven like?
I can’t believe that we accidently smashed in space and everything turned our perfectly – not without a master designer.
And, if we have a master creator, it’s reasonable that the creator cares about us and so there’s something after death…
These are from our front deck the other night and morning.
Our kids, as you know, are amazing…kind, caring, volunteering,
a NASA engineer and the other organizing environmental events that the mayor attends.
In this last 1/3 of our lives, Bruce and I are living as full a life as possible…
We just celebrated our 49th wedding anniversary last month.
We had a blessing in church, scoped out the waterfalls on the way to Creed
and then had a lovely lunch in Creed.
Our dogs keep us happily active:
We generally get up about 6:00 and start our doggie day.
And we all go to bed – tired, about 9:00.
Bruce and I have a trip to Scotland planned for the autumn.
The publisher of our newspaper says I won another award – details to come yet.
I have entered poetry and essays in writing contest – results in or around January.
A literary agent / publisher who has worked with National Geographic, asked me to send him my manuscript
for my picture book about the seasons in the mountains, with my photographs!
We do volunteer work.
We know no one is promised tomorrow…
We know we need to do what we what to accomplish – NOW.
FB keeps sending me notices that it’s your birthday –
As if I need that –
Happy heavenly birthday to my favorite brother.
I remember us talking at Christmas, weeks before you died and telling each other that we loved each other.
“Walks in nature are hugs for my soul.” Julie A R Stephens
julie@handsbestrong.com